Sunday, March 28, 2010

NAKENKULTUR CLUB, UPPSALA (S)

The naturist club Badstugan was founded in Uppsala in 1997. We organize indoor naturist swimming and sauna sessions. In summer we have some activities on the public nude beach outside Uppsala. The members of Badstugan are the persons who come to our indoor swimming sessions; in 2009 we had about 80 names on the list.

The naturist club Nakenkultur was founded in 2004. It is affiliated with SNF, the Swedish Naturist Federation. Nakenkultur has about 60 members.The purpose of Nakenkultur is to promote naturist culture and give information about the naturist society.

We have published three books so far:1) Sol, hälsa, glädje - about naturism in Sweden (2005)

We have founded and run a Naturist Library, Naturistbiblioteket i Uppsala. Among its acquisitions there are some rare publications such as:
* Olle Schmeling, Mot Baddräktskulturen (1928); the first brochure about naturism published in Sweden.
* Dagbräckning/Solsport, a monthly magazine published by Olle Schmeling in Valdemarsvik from 1932 to 1939. That year the title changed to Solsport. Olle Schmeling died in 1953 but the naturist association Nordisk Solsport went on producing “Solsport”, duplicated, two or three issues per year until 1972,
* Nakna fakta – SNF’s informative newsletter published between 1966 and 1970: 2 issues per year (1966-68), 4 in 1969 and 3 in 1970.
* Tillsammans - The quarterly membership publication of SNF (Sveriges Naturistforbund) first published in the spring of 1974. Our library has had a complete run of all issues from 1976 up to the present.

In Nakenkultur there is a special Nature Group whose main aim is the organization of naturist hikes; we have some trips to offer every year.

In 2008 we founded the Network Nybyggarna (New Settlers) in order to promote naturism on a national arena.

Olle Strand

(Olle Strand of Uppsala, Sweden, has been one of the most active naturists all over the world. He has been the house historian of Swedish naturism, a man of vision and a hard worker for the movement. His books and numerous articles are a must for students of Nordic naturism. We are happy to include his short contribution in our blog and look forward to further contributions.)